Digital Advocacy Project

Project Rationale:

Advocating good posture behavior is something that came to me all of a sudden as a thing that a lot of people disregard. Being pretty well versed in the subject due to suffering from posture related issues, the project immediately felt like a perfect fit. My goal is to share the general fact that computer use can potentially lead to various sorts of pain inducing problems if bad posture goes unchecked, and then to give minor suggestions on how to fix and avoid these sorts of situations. I went about this through creating a video that attempts to share information in an informal style so that anyone could watch and understand it and then be prompted to pursue the information further. From there I intend to create civic value by using Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. The value I created from my experience and knowledge of the subject is a good start, and ideally will be enjoyed and spread by computer users and people who know computer users who need to be inspired to seek posture help or would like to improve their posture.
My intended audience being people who already are active computer users, gamers, writers, programmers, etc., I felt short video would be ideal since most users typically would not look into a document on posture with as much focus as they might a video. This also plays into why I decided to go with Prezi as a medium for the video. People tend to spread things that are different or unique, and my goal with Prezi was to use it in the video so that I could provide a music video aesthetic via the movement of the Prezi while still having a format that made adding content easy. I also found that while Prezi’s being used in videos is not new, it is certainly not common, making it something unique enough that it could be a draw on its own.
“There is a spectrum between mediocre work and good work, and as anybody who’s worked as an artist or a creator knows, it’s a spectrum you’re constantly struggling to get on top of.” Said Clay Shirky in his talk about civic value and cognitive surplus as he was commenting on the difference between a “Lolcat” and media that is something more. My video is pretty simplistic and uses minimal data in favor of a simplicity that targets that inner gap that Shirky defines. This video targets something that not a lot of people put much though into, yet it influences people’s lives daily as more and more people experience health problems related to their work or personal computing lives. This then rolls into the “Six Things” article from class, as in my video I specifically target the negative outcomes and problems so that I can invoke emotion and then highlight the solutions to invoke more emotion. Another element from the “Six Things” that I borrowed was the social currency and accessibility of using a Lindsey Stirling song in the video, as Stirling is a reasonably known musician that is becoming more and more known nearly every day.
I am really pleased with what I did with Prezi and how I was able to use it to make a relatively decent music video. My response so far has been sparse, though I do hope to change this as I post my project to a few other locations on Reddit as the subreddit peak times come up respectively. Probably the biggest thing I learned doing this project is that it can be really hard trying to decide the best way to bring something new or useful to the table. I also found that while creativity is great, sometimes doing something simpler would be both easier and an overall more quality, spreadable project.